Ruling sanctions today's execution of killer

This undated prison photo released by the Georgia Department of Corrections shows convicted murderer Williams Lynd. It's been nearly 20 years since Lynd shot his live-in girlfriend three times in the face, killing her and then burying her body in a shallow grave near a south Georgia farmhouse. He may at long last be put to death for the crime on Tuesday. His lawyers will first ask the state Board of Pardons and Parole on Monday to spare his life, arguing the crime was not premeditated and was fueled by a toxic mix of valium, marijuana and alcohol. If the execution moves forward as scheduled, it would be among the first in the nation since the U.S. Supreme Court said lethal injection was constitutional. (AP Photo/Georgia Department of Corrections)

ATLANTA - Barring a last-minute intervention by the courts, a Georgia man who killed his girlfriend is likely to become the first inmate put to death since a U.S. Supreme Court review halted executions last September.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday denied William Earl Lynd's appeal for clemency, rejecting his lawyer's argument that forensic evidence at his 1990 trial was flawed and clearing the way for his execution, scheduled for 7 p.m. today.

On Monday two other states - Texas and Mississippi - also scheduled executions that had been on hold.

Lynd, 53, has a request for a stay before the Georgia Supreme Court, but preparations were moving forward for his execution. He has already selected his final meal: two pepper jack barbecue burgers with crisp onions; two baked potatoes with sour cream, bacon and cheese; and a strawberry milkshake.

He would be the first inmate put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that Kentucky's method of executing inmates with a three-drug injection is constitutional. Roughly three dozen states, including Georgia, use a similar method.

After the decision to review Kentucky's lethal injections, those states stopped executing inmates for seven months, the longest pause in 25 years. Texas conducted the last execution, putting Michael Richard to death on Sept. 25, 2007, the same day the Supreme Court agreed to consider the Kentucky case, brought by two prisoners who claimed the lethal injection method violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Lynd was sentenced to die for kidnapping and shooting his live-in girlfriend, Ginger Moore, 26, in south Georgia in 1988, after the two consumed Valium, marijuana and alcohol. Prosecutors said she suffered a slow, agonizing death, regaining consciousness twice after being shot in the head.

The medical examiner testified that Moore was still alive when Lynd stuffed her into the trunk of her car. Lynd confessed that when he heard her thumping around, he opened the trunk and fired the lethal shot.

The allegation that Lynd kidnapped Moore before she died was what made him eligible for the death penalty. But Lynd's lawyers argued the medical examiner who did Moore's autopsy was wrong to say she could have regained consciousness after the second shot.

A doctor hired by the defense found that Moore was already dead when she was placed in the trunk, which would make Lynd innocent of the kidnapping charge, his attorneys said. The original medical examiner now agrees it is unlikely Moore was still alive, according to defense attorney Tom Dunn's legal filing.

Lawyers say Lynd and Moore had a volatile relationship and were in a heated argument over a trip to Florida when he shot her.

"This crime was hotblooded and without premeditation," Dunn wrote in his application to the parole board. "Tragic - yes. Coldblooded - no."

Dunn also told the state parole board that the jury that sentenced Lynd to death never learned he had been sexually molested by neighbors at age 8, a possible mitigating factor.

After Lynd buried Moore's body in a shallow grave near a south Georgia farm, authorities said, he fled to Ohio, where he shot and killed another woman who had stopped along the side of the road to help him.

The Associated Press' Michael Graczyk in Houston and Holbrook Mohr in Jackson, Miss., contributed to this story.

U.S. Executions scheduled to take place

Georgia is poised to become the first state in the nation to execute an inmate since the U.S. Supreme Court decided in September to review Kentucky inmates' claims that lethal injection is unconstitutional. The court ruled last month that Kentucky's method of executing inmates, also used by about three dozen other states, is constitutional.

The last execution in the U.S. was Michael Richard of Texas on Sept. 25, 2007. These are some of the executions that have been scheduled since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month:

GEORGIA: William Earl Lynd, 53, scheduled to die at 7 p.m. today. He was convicted of kidnapping and killing his live-in girlfriend, 26-year-old Ginger Moore, nearly 20 years ago.

MISSISSIPPI: Earl Wesley Berry, 49, on May 21, for the 1987 slaying of Mary Bounds. Berry was convicted of kidnapping Bounds from the parking lot of the First Baptist Church in Houston, Miss., and beating her to death.

OKLAHOMA: Terry Lyn Short, 47, on June 17, for throwing a homemade explosive into an Oklahoma City apartment building in 1995, resulting in the death of 22-year-old Ken Yamamoto.

TEXAS: Jose Medellin, 33, on Aug. 5, for his participation in the gang rape and strangulation deaths of two teenage girls 15 years ago in Houston.